Unstable Dat...

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koltsixx

koltsixx

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I have 2 Dats now both indo's and when I got the first one he was completely black in the LFS. I took him home and he colored up nicely the next day. Then about a week later he turned black again. Now he sometimes is colored nicely then other times half black and other times all black. The times he seems to color up best is when I'm doing a water change or he's feeding. Interestingly enough my water changes put all my other fish on edge while the dat seems to take it in stride even approaching my arm and the siphon. The other indo stays half black most of the time, but I think it's cause of the chasing my bigger dat does to him. They both eat readily and even recognize me already quickly approaching the front of the tank for feedings when I enter the room. It's the only time my big dat leaves the little one alone. Can anyone help me I want them to be stable and I just don't know what to do. I do 2 water changes a week around 35-40% My temperature is at 79 degrees my ammonia is at 0 ppm as well as the nitates, nitrites ph is at 6.5 kh 0 gh 0-30. Any suggestions would be really appreciated. The only other thing I can think of is their are catfish of larger size than the dats in the tank. Maybe it's making them nervous. Thanx in advance.
 
Just wait. Its a hit or a miss with datnoids. They're like women, they change moods whenever they feel like it.
 
How long until you should start to worry though?

My indo has had some mood swings like yours that you mentioned, but my AT has always been much bolder. He's larger and sometimes bullied the IT and has always been pretty aggressive at feeding time, at least when there's krill (he won't eat anything dry or frozen shrimp/bw) involved. I had a trip this weekend planned so I tried to give him a pretty good feast on thursday night and friday morning and he wasn't at all interested, even when I waved the krill in front of his face. This morning we got back and he's hanging out in the back corner, dark and dull colored, and looks substantially thinner and very unhappy. He looks like he's even starting to sort of fold to one side a bit.

He had a nip out of a top fin last week, so I wonder if the green terror got to him. They've been tankmates for months though without a problem. Or maybe the big lusosso freaks him out now that he's got more swimming room to pick up some momentum. He's not a mean fish but he is twice everyone else's size and a few others are afraid of him as well.

Basic mood swings I can handle but I feel like this guy has gone beyond that. Anything I can do to help him get happy again and start eating?
 
arkmann;1843394; said:
Just wait. Its a hit or a miss with datnoids. They're like women, they change moods whenever they feel like it.
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First off, I would like to thank you for my new signature...that's one of the best associations I've ever read on MFK. :ROFL:

DaveB;1844655; said:
Basic mood swings I can handle but I feel like this guy has gone beyond that. Anything I can do to help him get happy again and start eating?
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If he's getting pushed around, you can try adding more hidespots. Some of my smaller dats really shift between stable/unstable depending on which fish they are confronting. My NGT rules that tank, so they tend to lose their stability if he is pushing them around, but if it's two ITs going head to head then they are fully stable, and they will remain that way until one dominates the other.


Koltsix, I would even consider trying the same thing...more hidespots.
 
^Anytime my man.

I tried hidespots as well with my datnoids and that didn't help with them being stable. I have two caves in my tank where all my datnoids congregates regardless if they are stable or not. I have an IT that is stable when lights are off and totally dark when the lights are on. When lights are on, he sits in one corner of the tank or against the back panel because I have a black background and he tries to blend with it. When the lights are off and its feeding time, he's always the first one to greet me.

John has said that blue background "helps" datnoids become more stable because of the same principle of blending in.

There is really nothing you can do to make the datnoid happy because I don't think it has emotions. You can try to keep it healthy though by doing twice a week water changes and twice a day feedings. Fish eating is caused by hungriness. It won't eat until it feels like it. You should only be worried about unstable datnoids that don't eat if you suspect that it has an internal parasite.

I once had an ngt that didn't eat for 4 months just because. It was stable but it didn't eat. It was tiny too, about 2" when I bought it. Once it had a taste of live blood worms, it ate like a pig. That thing was a primadonna! I sold it to justnk and from what I heard, it is still stable.

Bottom line, keep water parameters good, plenty of various types of food, and patience my friend, patience...

that is coming from a man who had experienced sudden mood swings from fish and women alike...
 
Prob more likely to be stable then the small indos that are around, but IME they are unstable more often then ST, NGT, AT. Probably because of how timid they are.
 
The most stable dats in my opinion are silver datnoids. Too bad they're less appreciated than the others. I love my silver though.
 
arkmann;1854799; said:
The most stable dats in my opinion are silver datnoids. Too bad they're less appreciated than the others. I love my silver though.
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Agreed...my silvers never lost stability. They are great dats, and don't get the respect they deserve.

Other than that, my large NTT is my most stable out of all my datnoids. Secod place would go to my NGTs...it's pretty rare that they aren't stable.
 
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